


Thanks, Babe

by plentytolovepanda



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Flirting, Fluff, Miscommunication, Pining, Useless Lesbians, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29402268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plentytolovepanda/pseuds/plentytolovepanda
Summary: Sparkles clears her throat and wags a finger in the direction of the grocery bags. “Did you fix my bread?”So apparently she hasn’t forgotten about that. You’d think she would be much easier going considering the perfect life she has: shopping at Whole Foods on a Sunday morning with the hottest woman Catra has ever seen. What she would give to have Sparkles life.______Or, a Valentine's day fic where Catra pines after Adora.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 190





	1. Chapter 1

**January 31st**

Catra is not having a very good day. 

She went on quite possibly the worst date ever last night; the woman showed up 20 minutes late with a hickey on her neck and spent the entire time smiling at her phone. 

When Catra stumbled into her room after ending the date early, she was sad and alone, but ended up deflating even more when her phone lit up with the grade on her english lit essay. 

‘ _ A C+ is not going to get you into Stanford _ ,’ she thinks as she roughly shoves bread into the bag she’s currently packing.

She’s working the dumb job at Whole Foods Scorpia got her. If she had a choice, she’d not be here, but money seems to pay her bills, so unfortunately here she is.

“Umm… excuse you.” Says the sickly sweet voice of the girl she’s currently helping. 

“What?” She curtly asks. She doesn’t have patience for a difficult customer, not today.

“My bread. You’re squishing it.” The woman, pink hair and short stature, looks very put out as she points to what Catra is doing. 

‘ _ It’s bread. Come on. It tastes the same no matter what. _ ’ She thinks.

“What did you just say?” Pink hair says with a growl.

Oh fuck, Catra freezes, holding the box of tampons she had just picked up to scan. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“Look–” Catra starts but is immediately cut off by a frickin’ supermodel jogging up next to this angry pixie she’s helping.

“Here Glimmer!” The model huffs a little bit and proudly holds out a bottle of hair product. “They didn’t have your shampoo but this looks close enough, don’t you think?”

‘ _ Glimmer. How fitting; she looks like the human embodiment of a sparkle. _ ’ Catra thinks as she scans the box of tampons and shoves it into the bag. It’s practically full so she lifts it out of the way and unfolds another paper bag to start filling with as much care as she did the first.

Sparkles inspects the bottle as Catra continues scanning. She seems happy enough with it to set it on the conveyor belt. 

“Thanks, babe.” Sparkles says as she lovingly pats the supermodels ass.

‘ _ Oh great, just what I need after that god awful date: a pair of happy gays. _ ’ She grumbles. 

Luckily it’s internally this time. 

Supermodel looks proud of herself for the find. She turns, notices Catra, and smiles. 

‘ _ Oh fuck. Her smile is so bright it could melt the north pole. _ ’ Catra only swoons for a moment before she remembers supermodel’s girlfriend has a temper. She promised Scorpia she would work on not provoking the customers. 

Sparkles clears her throat and wags a finger in the direction of the grocery bags. “Did you fix my bread?”

So apparently she hasn’t forgotten about that. You’d think she would be much easier going considering the perfect life she has: shopping at Whole Foods on a Sunday morning with the hottest woman Catra has ever seen. What she would give to have Sparkles life.

“Yes.” Catra grinds out. It’s an outright lie, but Sparkles won’t find that out until she gets home later. She evil laughs to herself; the bread is basically on the bottom.

Catra hurries to scan the last of their items, trying to get them out of here as fast as possible. They seem so happy together, laughing and talking about mundane things like every happy couple, and Catra tries her hardest to push down her jealousy. She can’t take her sadness over yesterday’s bad date out on this supermodel, and probably even Sparkles, she supposes.

Finally she is done and hits enter on the checkstand. “That will be $48–” 

Before Catra can finish, Glimmer interrupts her, because of course she does. “The cookies were labeled $3.15, why did you ring it up for $3.49?” 

Sparkles is clearly annoyed. Which is funny because Catra finds that she is too. 

“I’m sorry, I had nothing to do with it. Prices for the week changed last night. Someone on the night shift probably forgot to–” She hasn’t even finished her sentence before Glimmer is interrupting her again.

“I’d like the $3.15 price.” She says expectantly.

The model seems to blanch and Catra takes a little comfort that the model is slightly uncomfortable with Sparkles demand, at least. 

“Glim, we can afford it, it’s not a big deal.” Model says, placing a reassuring hand on Sparkles back.

‘ _ Frickin picture perfect gays. Why can’t I find that. _ ’ 

“No, it’s the principle of the matter, Adora.” Glimmer argues back to her. “It should’ve been changed.”

‘ _ Oh. Adora. So the model has a name, as pretty as her face too. Damn _ .’ 

They both look back to her, Glimmer expectantly and Adora a little awkwardly. Catra snaps out of her thoughts just in time to respond. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience but there’s nothing I can do.” 

It’s the truth too.

“So get your manager then.” Sparkles leaves no room for argument.

She takes a deep breath. She needs this job. She’s not going to lose it in an argument over some change.

“Scorpia, can you come to register six please?” Catra says over the store intercom. 

They all wait; Catra regretting the day she got this job, Adora looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here, and Glimmer, with her arms folded and foot tapping the floor.

Scorpia adjusts their price, because of course she does, and even gives them a 5% off coupon for their next visit. 

Sparkles finally pays and they leave. Catra happily watches them go, but freezes when Adora turns back around. Adora gives her a weird look that Catra can’t place. She is just about ready to ask her what her problem is but, before she can shout anything after them, Adora has turned back around and is now responding to whatever Glimmer just said.

**February 1st**

Catra shouldn’t even be here today; she didn’t have a shift. She has a chemistry test this afternoon that she would prefer to be in the library studying for, but someone called in sick and Catra has a hard time telling Scorpia no; Scorpia has been so good to her. Plus, it’s a short shift this morning: just four hours. Monday mornings are especially slow too, which is a plus. All of the pay for little to no effort.

She’s taking advantage of it, her chem book is just below the checkstand monitor and she’s reading the page carefully when a beautiful voice speaks up.

“Umm… excuse me?”

“Fuck!” Catra jumps, accidentally knocking her big ass chem book off of the stand and onto her foot. 

She shouldn’t have worn Birks today.She hisses in pain, shaking her foot a little, before nudging the book out of the way and looking up.

‘ _ Oh damn _ .’

Supermodel – Adora – from yesterday is holding a coffee cup and staring at her.

But also… great. Catra hasn’t had any frustrating customers yet and she was really hoping for just one shift without any.

She can’t even begin to think of what she could want, too. There isn’t anything on the conveyor belt and Adora doesn’t have a basket. 

“Here to use your discount?” Catra says to fill the silence. And also just to be a shit. Her toe still hurts from this blonde piece of perfection and she’s allowed to be an asshole because of that.

Adora laughs awkwardly and heaven help Catra, it’s cute.

“No… um.” Adora shuffles from side to side before she holds her hand with the coffee cup out. “I brought this for you. I know Glimmer can be a lot and I wanted to say sorry.”

Catra has made it a rule to never accept anything from people she doesn’t know, she listened carefully to her teacher’s stranger danger lectures as a child, thank you very much. She eyes the cup and then Adora suspiciously. But, if she’s being honest, she is exhausted. She was up late writing a makeup essay for Lit 1010 last night and she is running on basically no energy. And Adora seems trustworthy enough, hopefully. 

Adora waves the cup awkwardly. Obviously she doesn’t know what to do with it since Catra hasn’t taken it yet. 

“Uh… I called and asked the manager what your favorite drink was. She said you were into chai.” Adora pushes it forward, hoping the explanation was enough.

Catra can’t believe she called. That is quite literally the most effort anyone has ever put into doing something nice for her. Ever.

Catra finally reaches forward. She takes the mug and smiles at Adora.

“Thank you, this is so nice. You didn’t have to do that, though. Your girlfriend wasn’t any worse than most of the customers that come through my register.”

Adora cocks her head to the side. She opens her mouth to say something. Unfortunately, right as she does so, there’s a booming crash and the oranges formerly displayed near the entrance are now scattered across the floor. 

“Oh great, Kyle’s run into one of the displays again.” Catra says. She sets the cup down where her textbook formerly was and looks back to Adora. “Thanks again, this was really, really nice.” She gestures vaguely to the mess. “I should probably go help him though, there’s not too many of us on shift this morning.”

Kyle has just righted himself and now looks panicked. Frantically looking between all of the oranges and completely ignoring the fact that the carts he knocked the display over with are now basically blocking the entrance to the store. 

“Uhhh… yeah.” Adora looks back from him and nods in agreement. She looks like she wants to say more but stops herself. “Good luck, he seems stressed.”

Catra shakes her head as she turns her check stand light off. “He’s an idiot.”

She leaves Adora standing there. She’s almost made it all the way over to the source of the commotion when she hears Adora shout, “I hope you have a good rest of your day.”

**February 3rd**

Catra is sitting in the library at school, mind engrossed in her calculus book. She lives for this stuff. 

Catra doesn’t know why she’s all science and numbers and hypotheses and no words and prose and shit, but she hopes she can do something cool with the way her brain works one day. She picks up her pencil and begins furiously scribbling down notes when she’s interrupted by an unexpected voice.

“Catra?” 

She sets her pencil down and looks up. Adora’s bright face is smiling down at her from across the table. She’s got a messenger bag slung over her shoulder and a stack of books in her hands. She’s also got on a tight white t-shirt that’s showing off her flexing biceps as she holds onto the heavy stack of books in her arms. A pair of tight skinny jeans show exactly how long her perfect legs are.  _ Damn. _

“You go here too?!” Adora says. She’s so excited that she almost drops her stack of books. Her brow furrows deeply as she tries to right them, but thankfully doesn’t drop any as she focuses back on Catra.

Catra cannot contain the flip in her stomach at having the entirety of this goddess of a woman’s attention on her; unfair of her stomach to betray her like that. A crush on a woman in a relationship isn’t what she’s looking for so she forces it down and does something a little more petty than she’d like. 

“It’s Ad... Addison, right?” 

Catra purposely messes up the name. She knows her name, of course she does. She even accidentally doodled all over the margins of her lit notes yesterday, but she needs to put Adora in her place. She’s not looking to be anyone’s other woman, even if Adora is dating an asshole who doesn’t deserve her. 

Adora’s face falls. She looks so disappointed that Catra immediately feels a little bad for doing it in the first place.

“Umm… yeah.” Adora trails off before she shakes her head, realizing that’s not right. “Well… actually my name is Adora, but you can call me that if you prefer.”

Dang this beautiful girl is dumb. But Catra can only be so rude so she says, “ _ Adora _ ,” She emphasizes it. It feels good on her tongue. She wonders what else would feel good on her– Nope, nope, nope. This woman has a girlfriend. 

“My apologies.” Catra finishes. She hopes her cheeks didn’t heat up with her thoughts because she doesn’t know how she’d even begin to explain  _ that _ away.

It doesn’t, apparently, because Adora’s face is radiant again again. She sets her stack of books down across from Catra. As she does, she eyes the notes Catra had just been taking carefully.

“What are you studying? It looks intense.” Adora says, wonder in her voice.

Catra’s always been a little self conscious about her studies so sets her hand on top of her work. She’s sure she knows what she is doing, but there’s always been something about letting someone else in on it has always made her a little uneasy. 

“I’m working on math,” She says, slightly aloof. It’s an honest enough answer too.

A cute, light laugh escapes from Adora. “ _ I’m _ working on math. That looks like a different language.”

Something about her laugh is too cute for Catra to argue any further. She doesn't think she could hear it again and survive. 

“Yeah… It’s my calculus for science and engineering notes.” Catra says shyly.

“What?!” Adora grabs the chair with both hands and leans forward. Catra focuses intently on her face, taking every ounce of willpower to stare into Adora’s eyes instead of letting her own wander down Adora’s V-neck which is now exposing the porcelain skin right above the curve of her breasts. “Okay smarty pants.”

Catra feels her face actually redden this time and tries to brush it off. “I wouldn’t say I’m smart… maybe just hard working?”

“Oooh, definitely smart. Hard working and cute, too? That’s kind of the whole package.” Adora is honest to god smirking now. Still leaning on the chair, Adora crosses her arms. Heaven help Catra, now Adora’s breasts are being pushed up and slightly out of her shirt with the move.

‘ _ Oh fuck. Am I about to be killed by a great pair of boobs? _ ’ Catra unhelpfully thinks. She knows with every fiber of her being that she shouldn’t look, but she’s already used up all of her self control so she can’t help but glance at Adora’s cleavage this time. Judging by the grin on her face, Adora noticed it too.

Catra opens her mouth to respond, save herself from this sweet, sweet torture when a tornado of pink rounds the corner. She feels her heart sink further and further down with every stomp Sparkles takes towards them. By the time Glimmer reaches Adora, Catra is pretty sure her heart has fallen into the basement of the library, bleeding out next to the graveyard of old projectors and broken chairs of yesteryear. 

“There you are!” Glimmer wraps her arm around Adora’s shoulders and pulls her towards her small body, awkwardly yanking her back. The cleavage disappears, and weirdly enough, so does the smile on Adora’s face, which makes Catra the saddest of all. “I thought we were meeting on the first floor, what are you doing up here?”

Adora nods forward towards Catra, reminding Sparkles that she interrupted something. At least that’s what Catra’s mind hopes Adora’s intentions were. But Adora is polite, so she’s probably just being courteous when she says, “I ran into Catra.”

“Who?” Glimmer doesn’t even glance her way, which is just rude because she is an actual human being sitting in a chair across from her. 

“Catra.” Adora says pointedly, and emphasizes with an actual point of her finger.

Glimmer finally looks over and scrunches up her face. “Oh, the bread smusher.”

Catra’s stomach balls up into an angry knot right as Adora sighs. 

Adora is defending Catra before she can even open her mouth. “We talked about this, Glim. It still tasted the same.” 

“I know, babe.” There  _ that _ word is again. Catra’s heart falls from its place in the basement of the library straight down into the core of the earth, where she feels it immediately burn up. She can’t stay here any longer and do this. Glimmer and Adora are still arguing in front of her, though. 

“It’s the principle of the matter.” Glimmer is saying. “We pay for bread to be light and soft and…”

Glimmer continues going on about her stupid fucking bread as Catra starts packing up her things. She hastily shoves her notes into the textbook and closes her laptop before standing up and gathering her piles.

Adora stops her argument mid-sentence and looks at her, disappointed. “Are you leaving? I was going to ask if you wanted to joi–”

Catra interrupts, she needs to escape this. These two have a nice life and she doesn’t want to be a part of it.  _ Can’t _ be a part of it, even.

“Yeah, sorry. I forgot…” She points in a random direction, she didn’t think of an escape plan and has never been good at excuses. 

“My…” The words come out slowly as she thinks. 

“...friend.” 

Ah yes! People have friends. Catra has a few. Good alibi!

“Needs my notes!” Catra says the last part excitedly, happy to have come up with a reasonable excuse.

Glimmer looks smug, happy to see her go. Catra  _ hates _ it and wants to eliminate it by staying, but she now really has to go. She has already excused herself. 

“See you two,” Catra begins to say as she looks towards Adora, who just looks plain old sad. The look makes her feel like she kicked a puppy. She focuses on Adora, hoping to make up for bailing, when she adds, “I hope you have a good day.” 

She definitely doesn’t care if Glimmer has a good day, she probably shouldn’t say that though, so restrains herself and just walks off, hoping to find a more secluded part of the library she can hide in.


	2. Chapter 2

**February 4th**

It’s been a weird day. 

She stayed too long at the library last night, worried that if she left she’d walk by the happy couple and be caught in her lie. She accidentally fell asleep with her face in her textbook and a poor library employee had to shake her awake at one a.m. and tell her the library was closed for the night. When she got back to her apartment afterward she couldn’t get back to sleep so she ended up binge watching tv until she passed out on the couch. By the time she woke up, she had five minutes to get to her calc class. 

She knows she looks terrible. She was sprinting to class and trying to pull her hair up at the same time, so she’s sure the usually unruly mess probably looks like she stuck her finger in a light socket, but she’s not had time to go look at herself in a mirror to fix it yet, so people can just deal. 

Plus, she needs caffeine before her god awful lit class, so she yanks open the door to the on-campus coffee shop and hopes she doesn’t run into any cute girls.

The shop is full, college students taking up every available table and chatting amongst themselves. It’s a good thing she doesn’t have time to stay, she wouldn’t even be able to find a spot if she wanted to.

She’s walking towards the cash register when a familiar voice calls her name.

“Catra!” Adora’s in the middle of making a frappe, piling whipped cream high on someone’s drink, and looking exquisite while doing it. She’s got on the standard uniform, black and red checkered flannel, but she’s rolled up the sleeves, exposing her strong arms. It’s unbuttoned and Catra was sure if the black apron wasn’t covering it, she’d have on a shirt like yesterday, exposing a perfect amount of skin.

‘ _ Fuck _ .’ Catra immediately thinks. Why does she have to look like a freaking troll doll with sexy lumberjack Adora smiling at her with her big, beautiful eyes. 

“Hey, Adora.” She bypasses the register and carefully approaches the counter Adora is working behind. “I didn’t know you worked here. I’ve never seen you here before.”

“Oh, yeah. I just started last week, actually.” Adora doesn’t look up to respond as she shoves a lid on the drink she’s making. Somehow Catra still feels like she has her whole attention, which makes her nervous.

“Cool, how are you liking it?” Catra says. She shoves her hands into her hoody so she can disguise the fidgeting. This feels more awkward than it should. Or is it the appropriate amount of awkward for someone that isn’t a friend but that she also can’t stop running into?

Adora walks away from Catra to the edge of the counter. 

“Steven!” She hollers and sets the drink down before making her way back to Catra. She leans over the glass partition, closer to Catra, crossing her arms as she speaks again, “It’s fun! I get to meet a lot of new people. Learn a lot of new drinks.” There’s a brief pause before she adds, “I actually made your chai the other day. It was only my second time so hopefully it was okay!”

Something about the gesture warms Catra’s insides. “It was delicious, thank you.”

“Happy to do it! You deserved it.” 

There’s a slight pause. Adora seems to be on her tiptoes, as close to Catra as she can be without actually climbing over the divider. Catra’s trying to decide if she looks as bad as she thinks she does when Adora breaks the silence.

“What are you up to?” 

Thoughts interrupted, Catra responds. “Going to my effing lit class. I need some caffeine to get through it.”

Adora cocks her head to the side.

‘ _ Dammit, why is she so cute? _ ’ Catra bites her lower lip as she thinks.

“What kind of caffeine are you thinking? Another chai?”

Catra sighs, a little defeated at the thought of her next three hours. 

“No… not chai. Something strong because I swear this class is of the devil.” She eyes the menu above Adora, trying to break up the intense eye contact they’d been having. Her quick glance doesn’t give her any ideas so she looks back at Adora. “Any recommendations?” 

Adora nods proudly. “I know just the one. What’s your choice of milk?”

Catra shrugs. “Anything non-dairy but I’m not picky.”

Adora backs away, grabbing a cup. She nods towards the pick up counter. “Wait for me down there? I’ll be quick.”

Catra follows the instructions, walking down to the end of the counter. She pulls out her phone, mindlessly scrolling some apps for less than a minute before Adora walks over and sets a large drink down. 

She picks it up and freezes. “Oh shit, I didn’t pay!” 

Catra reaches into her back pocket to pull out her wallet before Adora speaks up. “Hey, no worries. I get a free drink every day. This one’s on me.”

“No, no. I can’t let you do that.” She’s opening her wallet as Adora reaches across the counter and puts a hand on her wrist to stop her.

“Please.” Adora looks so earnest Catra can’t help but put her wallet down.

“Okay. Thank you. But you really have got to stop doing this, I can pay!” Catra insists.

“I know you can.” Adora easily agrees. “Maybe next time I can have one with you and you can pay then?”

She seems nervous to ask, almost as if she’s asking her on a date. Catra is about to ask about Glimmer when the other barista that was filling in for Adora while they chatted speaks up. 

“Hey Adora. We’ve got a big mobile order. Can I get your help down here?” 

Adora’s already backing away, heading towards him. She points to the cup as she goes. “I mean it!”

Catra doesn’t totally understand what Adora means. She hurries to set the cup down while Adora’s back is turned and pulls out a ten from her wallet and shoves it in the tip jar. She doesn’t know how much this mysterious drink costs, but a ten  _ has _ to cover it she guesses.

She grabs the cup and heads out of the shop. She finally takes a sip and  _ oh shit _ is it good. She picks the cup up as she’s walking, holding it to her face trying to inspect what Adora made for her when she freezes in her tracks. Right below the cafe’s logo is a note. 

_ Text me some time _

_ –Adora :)  _

_ 617-907-0141 _

  
  
  


**February 7th**

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning. Well... it would be, if she was able to be out enjoying the warm sunny day and not stuck on register six again. The scale has been wonky today too. She’s had to reset it three times and not one of the customers who had to wait was nice about it. 

She’s currently helping a handsome man in a crop top who has been eying her curiously ever since he pushed his cart up to her checkstand. She can’t tell what his deal is either. It’s always weird when dudes hit on her at work. She makes it a point to wear her pride pin prominently on her badge and she always has a water bottle next to her checkstand that has a sticker on it that says, ‘Let’s Go Lesbians’ on it. But sometimes people don’t pick up the cues and still go for it. Usually if a dude is going to hit on her they eye her in a more predatory way... this dude… well, he just seems curious and she can’t place why. 

She scans his bag of potatoes and roughly drops them before she finally relents. 

She can’t take it anymore. 

“What is it? Do I have something on my face?” She barks out. 

“What do you mean?” He asks with an awkward lilt to his voice. His body language is calm, and if his voice hadn’t gone up a register, Catra would almost think he could have gotten away with playing it off.

“Seriously dude. What’s up?” She’s completely stopped scanning his items now. She’s lucky no one was behind him. 

The man narrows his eyes. He seems to be having an internal debate. His face looks conflicted but he still rushes out, “Are you single?” 

So Catra  _ did _ call this one wrong; the guy  _ is _ hitting on her. “Sorry dude. I’m not interested.”

His hands shoot up, trying to act innocent. “NO! I’m not… not doing THAT! I have a girlfriend.”

Catra folds her arms. She’s perplexed and angry. First Adora and now this dude. 

“What the fuck is up with the vibe I am putting out?” She asks out loud to herself.

Unfortunately, the dude doesn’t get the memo and asks, “Pardon?”

She’s not getting into this with him. It’s none of his business, thank you very much. 

“Nothing.” She unfolds her arms and grabs his next item to scan.

“So…?” He asks. He’s rocking on the balls of his feet expectantly as Catra continues scanning his items.

She grabs his bread and carefully places it on the top of the bag she’s just filled. 

“So what?”

“Are you dating anyone?” 

She scoffs as she scans his roll of paper towels. “Why is that any of your business? I don’t even know you.”

“I’m Bow.” He shoves out his palm forward, offering a handshake.

Catra eyes it but opts to ignore it and grab his next item instead. “Okay…?”

Bow awkwardly pulls his hand back, shoving it in his pocket. “Now you know me.”

Catra laughs it off. “It doesn’t work like that dude.”

“Come on…” He pushes, albeit kindly. Bow is a very friendly guy, if not nosy. “Seeing anyone?”

She drops the bunch of bananas on the scale and lifts her eyebrows. “If I tell you will it get you away from my register?”

“Yes.” He nods eagerly. 

This guy is cute. He’s like an excited little kid, but in a tall, muscular adult form.

“Fine.” She packs the bananas away and hits enter, bringing up his total. “No. I am hopelessly single, thank you very much. And that will be $62.48”

“Good! Good.” He mumbles… which Catra finds rude. But she’s not going to argue with this dude and keep him here longer. He swipes his card and as he does so he must have realized what he just said because his eyes shoot up to his hairline. “I mean, not  _ ‘good’ _ but… more like ‘ _ I see _ .’” As he waits for the card approval he adds, “I hope you find happiness… with  _ someone  _ very soon.”

‘ _ This dude is really weird. _ ’ Catra thinks as she watches Bow put his card away before grabbing his bags and putting them in his cart.

“Alright then… have a good day, I guess?” She asks, honestly more confused leaving this interaction than when she started it.

“You too Catra!” He says as he hurries away, not even looking back at her.

**February 13th**

Catra scans the last item and looks at this old woman. “That will be $65.89.”

She reminds her of her bitch of a foster mom. This lady has bony limbs, an angry face, and gaunt skin just like Weaver did. She can’t wait for her to be gone, the memories she’s bringing up are all too unwelcome. 

Plus, she’s almost done with her shift. So that’s an added bonus, too. Especially because she has the next few days off. It’s a little unfortunate, because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! Which Catra technically secretly loves but would never admit to anyone. In an ideal world, one of her online dates would’ve worked out and she’d be taking them to a nice restaurant or a walk on the beach, but alas, there’s always next year.

The lady grabs her bags, harrumphing at Catra for  _ who knows what  _ and sets off. This is her first lull all day so she wants to take advantage of it, going to pick up her phone and check it before the next customer approaches.

She doesn’t have any notifications, so she pulls up Tiktok and starts scrolling. She’s midway through watching a thirst trap for the third time when a huffy voice scares the shit out of her.

“What’s your deal?” 

Catra’s phone shoots up in the air, she fumbles, tossing it back and forth, hand to hand, trying to catch it. Finally she does and sets it down under the counter and out of sight. Scorpia doesn’t like it out anyway, she was risking it. Especially on a weekend. 

Catra meets Glimmer’s eyes with a glare, trying to play off her phone fumble. “Oh, Sparkles. Here to bitch about your bread?” She makes a show of looking at the conveyor belt but there’s nothing on it. “Oh god,” She rolls her eyes. “Are you here just to harass me?”

“No. I just want to know what your deal is. I saw the way you looked at Adora. And I know the way she talks about you. Plus, Bow said you said you were single. So unless you were lying to him…”

“Hold up, Who is Bow?” She says it aloud as her brain scans through her recent interactions. It hits her and she points a finger at Glimmer. “Wait! He wasn’t the creeper that was asking about my dating life last weekend, was he?”

“Bow’s my boyfriend.” Glimmer says indignantly. “And I told him he couldn’t do that smoothly...” She trails off, mumbling to herself.

Catra is still trying to catch up to the conversation Glimmer is having with her. So Bow was a plant. Which makes her feel better, because she felt off after her interaction with him last weekend. But! More importantly! Adora has been talking about her. Her heart skips a beat. But… that doesn’t make any sense. Catra didn’t text her on purpose, not wanting to get into whatever  _ this _ is. 

“But Adora’s your girlfriend?” Catra asks.

Glimmer’s entire face morphs from general displeasure to shock. “What?!”

“Yeah, and no offense, you seem  _ great _ ,” Catra deadpans, “But I’m going to have to pass. You couldn’t handle me.”

“Adora isn’t my girlfriend!” Glimmer is incredulous; hands on her hips like angry fucking Tinkerbell. “I just told you! I am dating Bow.”

Catra is less sure with the definitive tone Glimmer keeps countering her with but she still presses on.

“Does Adora know that? Because I even brought it up with her and she didn’t say anything.”

Glimmer rolls her eyes and pulls out her phone. She types a few things and all of the sudden a phone is ringing on speaker phone in the middle of this fucking grocery store.

“What…?” Catra goes to ask Glimmer right as a beautiful voice picks up the phone. __

_ “Hello?” _

Of course Glimmer would call Adora.

Glimmer responds immediately, “Adora, are we dating?”

_ “What?”  _ Adora laughs heartily. 

‘ _ She has such a pretty laugh _ ,’ Catra thinks. 

_ Adora continues, “Of course not, you and I would never work.” _

Glimmer huffs, obviously not the explanation she wanted. “We’ve talked about this, we would work if you _ listened  _ more.”

_ “Glim, I’m not in the mood to do this right now.”  _ Adora says, resigned. Her voice is so sad.  _ “I’m not having the best day and my break is almost over.” _

Glimmer shoots Catra a glare that she feels guilty for, but she’s not sure why.

“Okay.” Glimmer says with more care than Catra has heard from her yet. “Sorry, babe. I hope the rest of your shift goes well.”

_ “Thanks. I’ll see you after work?” _ Adora sounds hopeful at that.

Glimmer nods as if Adora can see her. “Yeah, Bow is bringing his Switch and we’re going to have a game night.”

_ “Good, I’ll talk to you later.” _

“Okay. Bye babe.”

She hangs up and meets Catra’s eyes. “Happy?”

I mean, she basically has her answer, straight from her source. But she still wants to clarify, just to be, extra sure.

“The ‘babe’ thing. “ Catra nods to the phone in Glimmer’s hand. “That’s not because you’re dating?”

“Oh. Ohhhhhh.” A light bulb goes off. Glimmer laughs loudly. “I call literally EVERYONE that.”

“Weird.” Catra grumbles, looking away. Apparently being raised in a house without a lot of affection skews one’s world view. 

“So are you going to call her?” Glimmer is looking at her sheepishly.

‘ _ Hopefully she feels bad. She should _ .’ Catra thinks.

Adora was really sweet and cute but it’s been over a week since she’s seen her. Social norms dictate that time has passed. “Isn’t it a little late for that? It’s been over a week.”

“Listen. I’m sorry for the mixup but trust me when I say you should call her.” Glimmer looks so sincere. There’s something behind her eyes that Catra can’t read, like she wants to say more but can’t.

Catra thinks for a moment. She opens her mouth to respond but her attention is diverted as a woman turns her overflowing cart into her checkstand and begins unloading her groceries on the conveyor belt. 

Glimmer looks away from the woman and back to Catra. Glimmer can obviously tell her time is up so she looks at her almost desperately, “Just… think about.”

  
  


**February 14th**

This is the dumbest effing idea. She’s standing outside of the on-campus coffee shop. It’s Sunday, so it’s only open for a few hours this morning, enough to give a pick me up to the poor souls that are studying at the library, or student’s who live in the dorms and are too hungover to go anywhere else.

She mentioned the possibility of this to Scorpia as they were texting after work yesterday, so she’s standing here with a potted plant from Perfuma’s greenhouse that Scorpia insisted she bring and a plate of brownies she baked last night. 

She stress bakes. So sue her. 

This feels weird, it’s been wayyyyy too long for her to text the number Adora gave her but Glimmer practically pleaded for her to… so that means this has to be okay, right? 

Whatever. Adora might not even be working so this might not even matter.

She can try again tomorrow. And she’ll get to keep this succulent and eat this plate of brownies to comfort her during her Valentine’s loneliness.

She takes a deep breath and walks inside. The shop isn’t too busy so she glances quickly around before looking towards the counter. There aren’t many people working, probably a combination of Sunday and the holiday, but right there with her back turned is a long blonde ponytail she knows belongs to the woman she’s here to see. 

Catra goes to take a step forward, ignoring the person at the register who is clearly trying to get her attention, and moves to the side of the counter Adora is working at.

“Hey Adora.” She calls across the counter.

Adora’s head snaps around and her face shines before she looks down at Catra’s hands. Her face falls, but she still sets the blender she was cleaning down and wipes her hands on her apron before walking forward. 

“Here-” She clears her throat and tries again. “Here to meet a date?” Adora manages to ask. It’s subdued, like she doesn’t want to know the answer. 

Catra audibly laughs. “Um… no. Well... maybe?” She cocks her head to the side. If this goes well she might, but Adora doesn’t know that so she has to press on. “These are for you.” She lifts the plant and brownies over the glass Adora is standing behind. “It’s an apology… for not texting.”

Adora looks so confused as she takes the gifts. She smiles down at the brownies though, which clearly look homemade, but Catra will call that a win. She’s never had the patience for  _ pretty _ in her baking… just  _ tasty _ . 

“But… why?” Is all Adora asks as she sets the stuff down in front of her.

Catra rehearsed this in her head. She has a whole speech planned as to why she is here with gifts on a commercialized love holiday, but all of that goes out the window and all she says is, “You don’t have a girlfriend.”

Adora pulls her head back in surprise. “No?”

Catra’s mind catches up to her and she begins a poorly told version of the speech she practiced so hard in the mirror earlier. “So, I thought you were dating Sparkles because I’ve never heard anyone call their friend ‘ _ babe _ ’ before, but she told me she calls everyone that and asked me to call you. And it feels too late to call you, you know?” Catra doesn’t wait for a response to her question as she continues, “And I did a lot of thinking after she yelled at me yesterday and I thought that if your friends cared so much that they sent Crop Top on a stealth mission to figure out if I was single, maybe wasn’t too late to come here and ask if you wanted to go out some time?”

Adora is frozen. She blinks; once, twice, three times before she says anything. 

“I thought you realized I was single when I gave you my number. I brought you coffee. I flirted _ SO HARD _ with you. And now you just come in here looking all adorable with your plant and brownies with whatever that confusing story was.” 

Adora is smirking now and Catra blushes. Hard.

“Yeah, well…” She doesn’t even know how to respond to that so she doesn’t even try.

Adora looks down at the brownies and takes one off of the plate. “Did you make these?”

Catra nods. “Yeah, sorry they look like shit. But I promise they taste good.”

“No, no, no. They look great.” Adora holds back a giggle and Catra glares.

“I swear if you say anything rude about them I am taking back my date offer.”

Adora takes a bite before she smugly says, “The one I haven’t even accepted yet?”

Catra’s heart falls but oh boy does her body do something different just one second later when Adora honest to god  _ moans. _

Catra immediately chokes on her spit, struggling for a breath as the woman working the other end of the counter shouts, “Keep it in your pants, Adora!” 

Adora looks guilty as she sets the rest of the brownie down. “Sorry, Lonnie!” She clears her throat and looks at Catra. “I was kidding before, I would really like it if we went out some time.” Catra feels her heart soar as Adora continues, “Plus, those are amazing. It would be a shame to miss out on not getting to have them again.”

“Really?” Catra can’t contain the excitement in her voice.

“Really.” Adora nods. “Do you want to do something tonight? I get off at four.”

“It’s Valentine’s Day.” Catra says matter of factly. Adora is making an absurd suggestion, they do not know each other and that is a  _ commitment _ .

“So?” Adora leans forward, crossing her arm and resting them on top of the glass divider. 

‘ _ Boobs! _ ’ Catra unhelpfully thinks, as soft skin is revealed. Why is Catra such a sucker for these? She’s seen them before but she turns into a horny teenager every time Adora’s so much as exist.

She clears her throat, bringing herself back to the present. “Don’t you think it’s… soon… for a date on such an important holiday?”

Adora is grinning. She unfolds her arms and takes a step back, grabbing a disposable coffee cup and a sharpie. She’s scribbling on it, not bothering to look up as she asks, “You think today is important?”

Catra feels her cheeks tint, but Adora’s busy with her back turned doing something Catra can’t figure out. “You don’t?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never had a date on Valentine’s.” Adora’s moving back and forth, still not looking at Catra. 

“Me either.” She mumbles mostly to herself, but Adora apparently overhears anyway.

“Don’t you think today is as good of a day as any to start, though?” Adora asks but doesn’t wait for an answer as she proudly hands over the cup she was just making. “For you.”

Catra hesitantly reaches forward and takes it. She brings it to her nose and takes a whiff. It’s a chai. Her heart flips. 

“Thank you. This is… really sweet.”

“Says the one who made me dessert and brought me a love fern.” Adora chuckles and tilts her head, “You’re cute.” 

She stomps her foot, she needs to defend her honor. “I am not cute!”

Adora rolls her eyes and nods to the cup. “I put my number on there. I  _ do not  _ have a girlfriend. Will you text me and we can figure something out?” She pauses but then adds, “It doesn’t have to be today if that makes you uncomfortable.”

Catra pulls the cup back. She sees a heart and a scribble of numbers next to it. She doesn’t bother to tell Adora that she may not have used her number but she definitely saved it the last time she got it. “I’m free tonight. I’ll text you and we can work something out?”

The smile that overtakes Adora’s face is radiant. “Deal. I look forward to it.”

“Okay… yeah me too.” There’s a comfortable silence as they both smile at each other. An empty cup is passed down the counter by Lonnie and Catra then notices that someone has finally come in and Adora will have to get back to work now. “I’ll let you get to it.”

“Okay. But don’t keep me waiting this time?” Adora says hopefully.

Catra smiles. “As long as you are absolutely sure that you are single?”

Adora rolls her eyes. 

“Yes, Catra. Super single.” She says before she turns around to wash her hands. 

  
“Okay, good. Talk to you soon.” Catra is backing up, heading out of the shop but before she can stop herself she shouts, "Thanks,  _ babe _ .” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading :)


End file.
